Typically, fruit is shipped to supermarkets in boxes, generally six boxes to a layer and from one to eight layers tall. In a typical situation, the boxes are opened and re-stacked to allow air circulation around the fruit to remove heat that builds up within tightly bunched, closed, boxes.
Banana boxes used for packaging and shipping fruit by all growers or shippers are designed very similarly, and all contain openings on all six sides of the box to allow air circulation and an escape path for the built-up heat.
In a warehouse facility, bananas arrive in refrigerated shipping containers or trailers. The fruit is palletized, generally in six boxes to a layer, eight layers tall, so that there are forty-eight boxes to a pallet and approximately twenty pallets in a full shipment. As the fruit is stacked about eighty-two (82) inches high on the pallets, each pallet is provided with banding which is wrapped about the boxes stacked on the pallets to prevent the boxes from shifting or falling during transport.
Before being shipped for retail sale at the consumer level, all bananas go through a ripening process in specially designed “ripening rooms”. In these rooms, fruit is generally placed in the same banded 48 box pallet as they are shipped in. In this banded stable stack, the aforementioned air holes in adjacent boxes are aligned and air is forced to move about the stack of boxes, flowing freely from one box to another through the aligned holes in the sides, top and bottom of the boxes. Thereafter, the air escapes to a common return where it is cooled and then caused to be recirculated, over and over, through and about the stack of boxes.
After the fruit is ripened, it is ready for shipment to the retail or end user location. A full banded pallet of fruit contains forty-eight (48) boxes each weighing forty (40) pounds (each pallet therefore carries about 1920 pounds). Very few supermarkets order bananas in such large quantities, so pallets are unloaded into smaller quantities for shipment. At this point, the banding must be removed, and thereafter, the boxes sitting on the pallets or in the stack are no longer pressed tightly together, and the holes in the boxes are no longer aligned.
Upon arrival at a retail location, good storage practices dictate that the banana boxes be re-stacked, with the lids removed, in a loose arrangement so heat in the boxes can escape. If this is not done, the quality of the fruit and the shelf-life is adversely affected. But even if done correctly, an average order of 25 boxes takes about 30 minutes to re-stack, and requires a clerk to lift each box 2 to 3 times. This adds up to 2000 to 3000 pounds of lifting.
Further it is known that the ripening time of fruit can be controlled by removing the fruit from the boxes and letting it stand in ambient or cooled air. However, this technique has been found less than desirable insofar as too much time is required to remove the fruit. Moreover, the fruit typically becomes bruised in this process and is rendered unattractive to the purchasing consumer.
It would therefore be desirable to have an apparatus which would permit ripening or storage of fruit contained in boxes stacked on a pallet after the banding, normally wrapped about the boxes when stacked on the pallet, has been removed.
Interest in keeping fruit fresh for as long as possible before presentation and/or sale to consumers has a long history, and fruit ripeners of varying kinds are well known in the art.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,443 to Wade discloses a method and apparatus for controlling the ripening of fresh fruit in which a stack of boxes of fruit is wrapped or covered with plastic such that the vertical faces of the boxes are covered. The boxes in the stack have holes in upper and lower faces which register with corresponding holes in vertically adjacent boxes to facilitate a vertical movement of an air-ethylene mixture through the stack. A lid on top of the stack of boxes is provided with a blower and an air-conditioning unit, and a hose or other conduit fluidly couples the top and bottom of the stack.
The blower draws air vertically through the stack, while the air-conditioning unit maintains the conditioned air in the stack at a predetermined temperature and humidity.
The fruit ripening apparatus of Wade is nevertheless not able to do the job where the fruit is being stored in the retail store just prior to display and sale to the consumer. As a rule, the equipment involved is complex, costly to maintain, and requires substantial space to house the equipment.
There is therefore a great and long-felt need for a fruit ripening apparatus which permits storage and/or ripening of fruit while the fruit boxes are stacked on a pallet, and which is light weight, not cumbersome in construction, unbreakable, easy to erect and store, inexpensive and simple in design.
In one aspect of the present invention, bananas are stored in stacks of unbanded boxes in a cabinet having channels in walls through which air is forced via fans to access openings in the cabinet walls adjacent selected ones of the boxes in the cabinet so that heat, that builds up in the boxes as the bananas ripen, can be removed before creating an injurious environment for the ripening bananas.
In another aspect of the invention, a fruit ripening apparatus comprises a cabinet having side walls and a cover portion within which are housed a fans and motors for driving the fans, the side walls having channels defined therein which fluidly communicate with the fans, so that fruit stored in the cabinet in stacks of boxes from which banding has been removed can be immersed in a cooling environment.
Other aspects, advantages and features of the invention will become more apparent and better understood, as will equivalent structures which are intended to be covered herein, with the teaching of the principles of the invention in connection with the disclosure of the preferred embodiments thereof in the specification, claims and drawings.